News from Europe's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry coupled with upcoming events, and exclusive articles and interviews from industry experts. WEEKLY
A couple of years ago as the US slid into economic recession, many of us looked forward to 2010 as the year when we could
hope for business to turn around. Surely, by 2010 companies would regain their footing, and the employment situation would
return to something that felt like prerecession conditions. So has it? Well, it depends in part on how well you weathered
the storm and where in the world you live.
Figure 1: Survey respondents answer how they feel about their job.
Many people have lost their jobs—11.3% of respondents, to be exact—but those that remain employed saw significant salary increases
this year. In fact, the overall average salary among respondents climbed to $102,468.79, up from last year's average of $94,079.
Nevertheless, more people feel insecure in their jobs now—53% of all respondents—than in any survey we've previously conducted.
Moreover, their work day has become longer, they are taking on more responsibilities and performing them with fewer resources,
and so their stresses mount. Surprisingly, many respondents seem optimistic about the future—56% expect business to improve
in the coming year, and 53% report that their companies plan to expand. More important, 71% say their companies will not be
downsizing anymore. So, perhaps we were just a tad premature in our expectation that 2010 would be the year of recovery. As
we enter what we hope will truly be a year of economic recovery and growth, we present a snapshot of the year that was in
employment.
Employers
Figure 2: Survey respondents address whether they intend to leave their jobs.
As in years past, the majority of respondents—80.2%—work in a company that manufactures pharmaceuticals; 45% (of all respondents)
work for a traditional bio/pharmaceutical company; 14.5% for a contract service provider or manufacturer; 11% for a generic-drug
manufacturer; and 9.7% for a biotechnology company. Only 2.4% work for an academic institution, down from 4% last year. Another
2.6% work for the government, 2.8% are self-employed, 1.9% work for a nonprofit organization, and 10% identify their organization
as "other." At 67%, most of the respondents came from the United States (including Puerto Rico), another 20% came from Western
Europe, 2.8% are from Eastern Europe, 3.2% are from Canada, and 1.9% are from India. The remainder are from South and Central
America and East Asia.
Figure 3: Sources of job satisfaction (multiple responses were allowed).
As in previous surveys, the quality control and assurance (QA/QC) professionals constitute the largest number of respondents—19%
(up from last year's 17%). Interestingly, women account for about 52% of these (36.8% of all women report their function as
QA/QC). Coming in second at 8.6% of total respondents were engineers and engineering managers, but here the demographics skewed
in favor of men (10% of men, and 2.6% of women respondents performed this function). The same is true of the 7.9% in production
management (10.4% of men, but only 1.7% of women); 7.2% are in process development (9.7% of men, but only .0.9% of women);
and the 4.1% in corporate management (5.5% of male respondents, but only 0.9% of female respondents). Formulators and production
researchers were somewhat more evenly represented by the sexes: 5.9% of total respondents are in formulation (6.5% of men,
and 5.1% of women); and 5.2% are in production research and development (4.9% of men, and 5.1% of women).
